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Basseterre, St. Kitts, October 03, 2017 (SKNIS): Prime Minister, Dr the Honourable Timothy Harris has echoed his government’s commitment to grant citizens and residents duty free concessions to those persons who reported damages to their homes following the passage of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September.

Speaking at his monthly press conference on Tuesday, October 03, Prime Minister Harris updated the media and the general public on the progress to date and noted that “regarding the duty free concessions on building materials for the victims of the hurricanes, the Ministry of Finance has reported that over 300 applications have been collected and the Ministry of Finance is awaiting their return for formal processing.”

He stated that persons have been selected to assist individuals with applying for the duty free concessions, as there might be persons who are not able to do so on their own.

“Contact persons have been identified at the Inland Revenue Department, the Accountant General Department, Customs and Excise Department, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Office of the Prime Minister to assist in completing their forms should such assistance be required by anyone,” said Dr. Harris. “So you have the form, you are having difficulties filling them in, we have set up if you will, help desk and identified persons in each of the relevant departments who will provide assistance in getting the form filled in.”

Prime Minister Harris said that the government is aware of the importance of its people and against this backdrop will do all in its power to ensure that they are taken care of first and foremost.

“My Government has given priority to restore our people’s lives to normalcy. In this regard, the Ministry of Finance working with the Ministry of Sustainable Development will recruit persons on a temporary basis to help with the estimates of the repairs to correct the damage should such assistance be required,” he said. “In other words, we want to put that on a fast track. And there may be elderly persons or persons otherwise unable to take care of the estimates and we therefore will have private parties who will be engaged by the relevant ministry to conduct this exercise with a view to fast tracking it.”

He explained that the preliminary estimates will go through a verification process by another group of government employees before the final signing off.

Application forms are available and can be collected at the Ministry of Finance, the Treasury Department, Inland Revenue Department, NEMA, or downloaded from the Ministry of Finance’s website at www.mof.gov.kn.